United Kingdom Beethoven, Mozart, Capperauld, Schubert: Ivan Podyomov (soloist), Scottish Chamber Orchestra / Maxim Emelyanychev (conductor). City Hall, Glasgow, 21.2.2025. (GT)
Schubert – Symphony No. 1 in D major, D.82
Mozart – Oboe Concerto in C major, K.314
Jay Capperauld – Bruckner’s Skull (world premiere)
Beethoven – Symphony No.1 in C major, Op.21
This concert framed classical symphonies by Beethoven and Schubert with Mozart’s song-like Oboe Concerto, and at its centre, the world premiere of a piece based on another Viennese composer Bruckner by a young Scottish-born composer – Jay Capperauld.
It was with an authoritative interpretation of Schubert’s C major Symphony that Maxim Emelyanychev made his debut with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Since he has established himself as one of the outstanding conductors on the international stage. On this evening, he took the opening Adagio with a slower tempo thus allowing the sudden switch to Allegro vivace to be more effective. Emelyanychev seemed at times to hold back the playing as if delighting in the emerging colourful harmonies enhanced by the dramatic strikes on the timpani by Louise Lewis Goodwin. A feature of recent concerts has been the changing members of the orchestra. The leader now was Bogdan Božović who offered some engagingly gorgeous string playing. The second movement (Andante) was distinguished by outstanding woodwind playing, especially the oboe of María Alba Carmona Tobella and André Cebrian on the flute. The delightful music-making continued in the Menuetto; the conductor evinced exquisite playing from the strings in a string quartet in the charmingly gentle Ländler evoking Schubert’s love of nature and closed with an amusing solo from the oboe of Carmona. The final movement (Allegro vivace) charged towards the culmination – full of fun and musical colour with stridency in the woodwind and brass group, all masterly directed by Emelyanychev.
The soloist in the Mozart Oboe Concerto was a new name for me – Ivan Podyomov from Archangelsk. He studied at the Gnessin School in Moscow and in Geneva with Maurice Bourgue, since which he has worked with some of the finest ensembles in Europe and is a principal with the Royal Concertgebouw. He is a prize-winner of competitions in Munich, Japan and Prague and teaches at the Luzern Muzik Hochschule. Based on this performance, he is sure to enjoy a major career. Podyomov dominated the music – rarely turning around to his compatriot Emelyanychev – and so much affinity clearly existed between the two Russian musicians.
Podyomov revealed his virtuosity early with an extended lofty note in the opening Allegro aperto that offered a hint of an operatic arioso with its beauty and grace. Emelyanychev offered great support to the soloist, with wonderful accompaniment from the strings. The concerto’s heart is in the Adagio non troppo – evincing all the magnificence of Mozart’s songful creativity – musing on the operatic arias fashioned by Podyomov. The strings supported the soloist with some of the most gorgeous playing led by the violin of Božović. In the finale, the strings and woodwind gave delightful support assisted by the horns and another beautiful cadenza by Podyomov carried this charming piece to a bright life-enhancing climax. As an encore, Podyomov played a movement from Mozart’s Quartet for Oboe with Max Mandel, Philip Higham and Bogdan Božović.
Jay Capperauld is the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Associate Composer and writes about his new piece. ‘Written as a death-mask homage to composer Bruckner in the 200th anniversary year of his birth, Bruckner’s Skull is inspired by Bruckner’s obsession with death, and the two alleged occasions when Bruckner cradled the skulls of both Beethoven and Schubert when their bodies were exhumed and moved to Vienna’s Central Cemetery in 1888.
Bruckner’s Skull is intended as a psychological musical exploration of the great composer’s character and the stories that surround his life, death, passions and obsessions. The focus of the piece is to delve into Bruckner’s mind through the lens of his morbid fixations as a kind of musical post-mortem, to find out why he was driven to act in the societally unacceptable – and, by modern standards, immoral and potentially criminal – ways that he allegedly did. Therefore, the musical material in this work is directly derived from fragments of Bruckner’s compositions and altered to an obsessional degree. The work includes some hidden and overt references to both Schubert and Beethoven’s music as well.’
Capperauld is a fine composer, and his works are well orchestrated yet lack an element of originality required to ensure his development as a composer. Of course, writing a piece using themes from other composers should not necessarily inhibit his work but the most significant weakness is that he bases his work on speculative incidents in Bruckner’s life. Whether or not Bruckner held the skulls of Beethoven and Schubert is irrelevant; in contemporary life, events are recorded as true in the press, especially on social media creating all kinds of misinformation. In his programme notes, Capperauld quotes Carl Jung, ‘In the end, man is an event that cannot judge itself, but, for better or worse, is left to the judgement of others.’
The opening bars on the strings reminded one of Hitchcock’s Psycho – without the horror of the movie – yet the themes which emerged hinted at cinematic imagery without allowing any unique ideas to be heard. There weren’t any quotations from Bruckner’s music, but there were dissonant noises, ticking sounds and tapping on bows, all of which created a particular atmosphere. Towards the end, there was a gradual buildup in tension representative of the traumas in Bruckner’s life. The seventeen-minute work is beautifully written – without any interesting ideas or originality – I would like to hear it again but I doubt it will impress me more than on its premiere.
Beethoven’s First Symphony is not heard as often as it should be – it is a remarkable work that challenges convention in the first bars – as if setting down a marker by advancing from the Viennese symphonic tradition of Mozart and Haydn. In the Adagio molto – Allegro con brio Emelyanychev quickly stirred his musicians to a faster, more dynamic energy with magnificent playing from the strings, everyone playing as if their lives depended on it, with bubbling woodwind and the eloquent brass. In the second movement (Andante cantabile con moto) there was refinement and a luxuriant timbre in switching to music-making of boundless creativity. In the Menuetto, the pace became livelier: this hints at the scherzos of his later symphonies in the chirping woodwind, bright brass harmonies and a joie de vivre; before the eruption of the Adagio-Allegro vivace finale with its life-enhancing joyous melodies first heard tentatively in the violins, and picked up by the woodwind and the celebrant brass group before storming to the uplifting climax. This was a terrific concert, with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Maxim Emelyanychev showing world class form on a chilly night in Glasgow.
Gregor Tassie